Harbaugh clan keeps it neutral

Coaches’ parents, sister prepared for win-lose outcome at Super Bowl

Nov. 24, 2011 - Jack Harbaugh (far left) and his wife Jackie (second from left) chat with sons Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh (second from right) and San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh (right) before a game in Baltimore.

When Jackie and Jack Harbaugh watched last week’s NFC and AFC Championship Games, they sat alone in their basement with the phones turned off.

The parents of head coaches Jim and John Harbaugh didn’t need any extra distractions.

But now that both sons have advanced their respective teams to Super Bowl XLVII, where Jim’s San Francisco 49ers will meet John’s Baltimore Ravens next Sunday in New Orleans, there will be no hiding at home alone for Ma and Pa Harbaugh.

They will be in attendance at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, and although they aren’t sure exactly where they will be seated, they know the television cameras will be fixed on them throughout the game.

This is, after all, the first time in Super Bowl history that two brothers will oppose each other as head coaches. It’s such an intriguing story line, the NFL arranged for Jackie and Jack, along with their daughter, Joani Crean, to take part in a national conference call with reporters to discuss what everyone now is referring to as either “The HarBowl” or “The Superbaugh,” depending on which nickname you like best.

“I am going to be neutral in the game and I know someone is going to lose, but I would really like to see it end in a tie,” Jackie said.

“Can the NFL do that?”

No, it can’t.

So the ending will be much like last year’s experience, when the day before Jackie and Jack’s 50th wedding anniversary, Jim’s 49ers lost to John’s Ravens 16-6 on Thanksgiving night in the first regular-season meeting between the two brothers.

One of them has to lose this time, too.

Mom and Dad were in attendance the last time, and Jack, a longtime college football coach, remembers what it was like afterward.

“I recall coming down to the locker room and I peeked into the Ravens’ locker room and they were ecstatic, guys jumping up and down,” he said. “And then there was the smile on John’s face and the thrill of victory — the type of thing we hear so often. I thought to myself, ‘We really aren’t needed here; this looks like it is pretty well taken care of itself.’

“I walked across the hall there in Baltimore and went into the 49ers’ locker room. It was quiet and somber and finally, I saw Jim, all by himself, no one around him. He still had his coaching thing on, and his hands on his head, and we realized that this is where we were needed.

“So that feel of victory and agony of defeat … we know we are going to experience that next week.”

When the game finally gets here, don’t look for the Harbaugh clan to be sporting any jerseys or team colors from the 49ers or Ravens.

Jack, who coached for more than 40 years, including a 14-year run as the head coach at Western Kentucky, said “the greatest joy I got in my life” was watching his sons turn to coaching.

John, who is 15 months older than Jim, came up the hard way. A former defensive back in college at Miami (Ohio), it took him 25 years to become a head coach. He had his assistant jobs with five different colleges and then spent 10 years with the Philadelphia Eagles before the Ravens tabbed him in 2008.

Jim, 49, was a star quarterback at Michigan, a first-round pick, and quickly climbed through the coaching ranks upon retiring from the NFL as a player.

Within 10 years, he landed his first head-coaching job (University of San Diego). Following a successful four-year stop at Stanford, he made the transition to the NFL, and in just two years has taken the 49ers to back-to-back NFC championship games.

“We’re just excited they have brought their teams to the pinnacle of sports,” Jack Harbaugh said. “The Super Bowl is the ultimate accomplishment for them and their teams and for all the extended football family and all of the teams that have participated in this great game.”

Jim and John each made gutsy decisions during the regular season to get here. Jim switched starting quarterbacks, as the 49ers moved from Alex Smith to second-year wunderkind Colin Kaepernick. John, meanwhile, switched offensive coordinators, replacing Cam Cameron with a more aggressive play caller in Jim Caldwell.

“It was a brilliant move,” Cameron said last week.

Jack Harbaugh was impressed with both bold moves, saying, “That is what coaching is all about; that’s what leadership is all about.” He’s had to stop sending each son his own weekly scouting reports, however, seeing as how he is neutral.

His only advice to both boys is, “Get ahead, stay ahead.”

Oh, and as for this whole “Harbowl” and “Superbaugh” business, Jackie and Jack are flattered, but honestly, they wish we wouldn’t call it that.

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